A Bottomless White Box

Lofty Goals Mean Busy Creators

I’m really enthused by positive reaction to both White Box Quarterly #1 and White Box Cyclopedia. It’s clear there’s a love for this old-school, low-fi style of product and I am on fire with ideas. My goal, as lofty as it is, is to release one new White Box product every month this year and, if things go well, to drop a few extra ones so that I can get a full dozen out for the year of 2026. That’s in addition to RetroQuest: Sword & Power Fantasy Roleplaying.

Both White Box Quarterly #2 and White Box Quarterly #3 are completely drafted and uploaded to DriveThruRPG. All I have to do is hit the “Public” button and they’ll be live. But the plan isn’t to release WBQ2 until June and then WBQ3 in September. So, what to put out in the intervening time? Well, I did some informal polls and between inquires on Discord and Facebook (my primary social medias beyond Substack), folks indicated to me that they want stand-alone adventures. Now, I don’t know if I can crank out eight adventures in a year, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility.

I noticed a gap in the market, though. White Box Cyclopedia is a helluva game. But it’s also a lot of game. It takes the simplicity of White Box and turns it up to a thousand. With Swords & Wizardry White Box currently unavailable, there’s no true back-to-basics White Box fantasy game available. Sure, you’ve got Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game and Into the Sunken Catacombs. But the former is more a combo of Swords & Wizardry White Box and monsters and a class from my own White Box Omnibus. Meanwhile, Into the Sunken Catacombs is a wonderful White Box-based fantasy game, but it goes in its own direction with class variants, downtime rules, a unique way of dealing with monsters, and other elements that give it a unique identity.

So, what’s a guy to do?

That’s right: A new game is coming soon.

White Box: Dungeon Adventures is a true back-to-basics White Box game that’s both stand-alone and serves as a wonderful lead-in to White Box Cyclopedia. It clocks in at 44 pages and I’m planning on releasing it in PDF and A5 softcover on DriveThruRPG, as well as A5 saddle-stitch on Lulu (my preferred format for the game).

White Box: Dungeon Adventures

Five Levels. Four Heritages. Three Classes. Two Dice. One Dungeon.

Go back to the beginning. To a time when adventure was just on the other side of a dungeon door. When the only thing between you and certain death was a sword, a spell, and the roll of a die. When the only thing staving off the horrors in the darkness was a flickering torchlight and fading courage. Return to a simpler time.

White Box: Dungeon Adventures is a streamlined stand-alone, old school rules set that serves as an introduction to more complex White Box games like White Box Cyclopedia. It facilitates rapid play that introduces new players to vintage style fantasy games, allows time-strapped veterans to get straight to the dungeon, and lets Referees focus on the foundational elements of play that have endured for fifty years.

White Box: Dungeon Adventures includes:

• Three Classes: Fighter, Cleric, & Magic-User

• Four Heritages: Dwarf, Elf, Halfling & Human

• Character advancement to 5th level

• 30 spells for both Clerics and Magic-Users

• A complete bestiary of over 30 monsters

• Over 50 magic items for use in any White Box game.

• Rules for quickly and easily generating treasure hoards and dungeons.

• Advice on running stand-alone campaigns or using White Box: Dungeon Adventures as a springboard to other White Box games.

Presented in 45 A5-sized pages with art by Luigi Castellani presented in crisp, easy to read and printer-friendly layout. Featuring cover art by Rick Hershey.

So, give it a month or so for the physical proofs to come back and assuming they look good, we’ll have a new stand-alone White Box fantasy game to enjoy. Happy adventuring!